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Since the landslide victory of Mohammad Khatami and his reformist government in Iran’s 1997 presidential election, Iran has justifiably garnered much attention once again. If successful, the new reform movement will constitute a political experience as significant as the 1979 Revolution. Today’s is a unique religio-political experience unfolding from within a fundamentalist theocracy two decades old. Although this reform movement is still evolving, its points of departure from the ruling theocratic regime are evident. Political change is driven by a variety of factors—social, economic, cultural, international influences, etc.—and the recent political reform movement in Iran is no exception.
Social problems associated with the rise of a new generation, economic crisis and uncertainty regarding nationalization or privatization, political factionalism and power struggles, Iran’s relative isolation internationally and the pressure of globalization all set parameters for the emergence of this reform movement and have been rather extensively discussed. Nevertheless, these studies view the reform movement as an exclusively political phenomenon and do not explain how a dogmatic, ideological, religious milieu has produced from within such a popular democratic language and outlook that cries for nothing less than “pluralism,” “human rights,” “civil society,” and “rule of law.” Addressing this question, this paper examines this recent shift in Iranian political discourse from the
vantage point of a shift in religious discourse.
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